Leander walked down to the IT Department to deliver his daily report. Upon entering the large building that contained several hundred programmers and their sophisticated equipment, he saw an unusual flurry of activity happening in the group project room, with around fifty men and women typing furiously at the computer terminals. Half the programmers were grinning widely.
“What's going on, Kevin?” Leander asked the person he usually reported to, a young man who had the pale skin, glasses, and slightly hunched posture that was associated with too many hours staring at a computer screen without a break.
“Dream Life Enterprises is hacking us again, looking for our advanced AI software,” Kevin answered, never taking his eyes off of his screen or pausing in his typing on the keyboard.
In the competitive world of gaming software, VirtualRealities indisputably dominated the market with their cutting-edge graphics, whimsically detailed worlds, and incredibly realistic NPCs. Their main competitor, Dream Life Enterprises, had spent billions of dollars in research and development over the years, managing to come close in quality in other software aspects, but never seemed to be able to close the gap in NPC quality and realism. Recently, Leander's company had been subjected to a series of hacks appearing to target the AI software in VirtualRealities' databases. Though the attacks were not directly traceable to Dream Life, no one had any doubt as to who was looking for the files.
Leander smiled. The hackers would never find what they were looking for, since those files did not exist in the company servers. “So what is everybody doing?” he asked.
“That half is making sure that the intrusion doesn't affect the running of our games,” Kevin said, briefly gesturing at the half of the room wearing serious expressions. He grinned and continued, “This half is making sure they find the little surprise we left for them.”
“Is it a virus?” Leander asked.
Kevin grinned even more widely. “Better.” He paused dramatically before continuing, “It's copies of Dream Life's own AI software.” (*diabolical*) Not expecting anyone wanting to target Dream Life's inferior NPC files, it had been surprisingly easy to access and copy them.
Leander laughed out loud (*lol*). The game designers and programmers at VirtualRealities constantly surprised and amused him with their antics. “I wonder how long it will take them to figure out what they have.”
“Well, since we modified a bunch of code to look different while functioning identically, it might be a while,” said Kevin.
Leander shook his head in admiration. “You evil man.”
“Well, everybody helped,” said Kevin modestly.
Suddenly, a person yelled, “They found it!” and the room filled with cheers the same way the NASA headquarters did when they landed a Rover on Mars. Objective (apparently) reached, the hackers ceased their intrusion, and within a few minutes, most people left the common room to return to their private offices for a quieter place to work.
Leander followed Kevin to his office. As they walked, Kevin said, “So I saw you fought some chaos-element monsters last night. What did you think?”
Leander paused, trying to find the words to encapsulate the random, chaotic experience. After several tries, he finally said, “You had better keep it a secret that you are the one who came up with the concept.” The words were said so seriously that Kevin stopped walking to look at his co-worker.
“What? Why?”
“If it becomes well-known that you thought up the chaos concept, I am sure that someone will eventually punch you in the face.”
Kevin started to look worried, then changed to a puzzled expression when Leander added, “Probably before or after hugging you.”
***
Arwyn came home from work tired and lacking the willpower to resist playing Fantasia until a normal bedtime hour. Giving in to the game's seductive whisper (“Come,” it beckoned creepily), it was barely 9:00 p.m. when she slid on the game helmet and logged on.
◊◊◊
“Scanning. Player detected. Welcome back to Fantasia, Fey E'lan.”
◊◊◊
After materializing inside the infinity dungeon, Fey immediately set out towards the armour shop and the new kicking gear waiting for her. Settling into a medium-paced jog that she could maintain for a while, she arrived at the Moonwood in half an hour. She was trailed by bounding glooms and a mushroom riding a boar (Amethyst got to ride on Fey's shoulder, of course, because she's the leader of the Feypets and also happens to weigh the least).
Leander walked down to the IT Department to deliver his daily report. Upon entering the large building that contained several hundred programmers and their sophisticated equipment, he saw an unusual flurry of activity happening in the group project room, with around fifty men and women typing furiously at the computer terminals. Half the programmers were grinning widely.
“What's going on, Kevin?” Leander asked the person he usually reported to, a young man who had the pale skin, glasses, and slightly hunched posture that was associated with too many hours staring at a computer screen without a break.
“Dream Life Enterprises is hacking us again, looking for our advanced AI software,” Kevin answered, never taking his eyes off of his screen or pausing in his typing on the keyboard.
In the competitive world of gaming software, VirtualRealities indisputably dominated the market with their cutting-edge graphics, whimsically detailed worlds, and incredibly realistic NPCs. Their main competitor, Dream Life Enterprises, had spent billions of dollars in research and development over the years, managing to come close in quality in other software aspects, but never seemed to be able to close the gap in NPC quality and realism. Recently, Leander's company had been subjected to a series of hacks appearing to target the AI software in VirtualRealities' databases. Though the attacks were not directly traceable to Dream Life, no one had any doubt as to who was looking for the files.
Leander smiled. The hackers would never find what they were looking for, since those files did not exist in the company servers. “So what is everybody doing?” he asked.
“That half is making sure that the intrusion doesn't affect the running of our games,” Kevin said, briefly gesturing at the half of the room wearing serious expressions. He grinned and continued, “This half is making sure they find the little surprise we left for them.”
“Is it a virus?” Leander asked.
Kevin grinned even more widely. “Better.” He paused dramatically before continuing, “It's copies of Dream Life's own AI software.” (*diabolical*) Not expecting anyone wanting to target Dream Life's inferior NPC files, it had been surprisingly easy to access and copy them.
Leander laughed out loud (*lol*). The game designers and programmers at VirtualRealities constantly surprised and amused him with their antics. “I wonder how long it will take them to figure out what they have.”
“Well, since we modified a bunch of code to look different while functioning identically, it might be a while,” said Kevin.
Leander shook his head in admiration. “You evil man.”
“Well, everybody helped,” said Kevin modestly.
Suddenly, a person yelled, “They found it!” and the room filled with cheers the same way the NASA headquarters did when they landed a Rover on Mars. Objective (apparently) reached, the hackers ceased their intrusion, and within a few minutes, most people left the common room to return to their private offices for a quieter place to work.
Leander followed Kevin to his office. As they walked, Kevin said, “So I saw you fought some chaos-element monsters last night. What did you think?”
Leander paused, trying to find the words to encapsulate the random, chaotic experience. After several tries, he finally said, “You had better keep it a secret that you are the one who came up with the concept.” The words were said so seriously that Kevin stopped walking to look at his co-worker.
“What? Why?”
“If it becomes well-known that you thought up the chaos concept, I am sure that someone will eventually punch you in the face.”
Kevin started to look worried, then changed to a puzzled expression when Leander added, “Probably before or after hugging you.”
***
Arwyn came home from work tired and lacking the willpower to resist playing Fantasia until a normal bedtime hour. Giving in to the game's seductive whisper (“Come,” it beckoned creepily), it was barely 9:00 p.m. when she slid on the game helmet and logged on.
◊◊◊
“Scanning. Player detected. Welcome back to Fantasia, Fey E'lan.”
◊◊◊
After materializing inside the infinity dungeon, Fey immediately set out towards the armour shop and the new kicking gear waiting for her. Settling into a medium-paced jog that she could maintain for a while, she arrived at the Moonwood in half an hour. She was trailed by bounding glooms and a mushroom riding a boar (Amethyst got to ride on Fey's shoulder, of course, because she's the leader of the Feypets and also happens to weigh the least).
